FEMA fruitcakes: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency has lifted its suspension of the Phoenix Fire Department's urban search and rescue team two months after firefighters were sent home from hurricane relief efforts because they had armed police officers with them. Arizona Task Force 1 will be allowed to continue deploying Phoenix police deputized as U.S. marshals 'as long as they wear U.S. marshals' uniforms,' FEMA officials said. FEMA's decision to allow armed police, despite a rule against carrying firearms, applies only to Phoenix's team. But the agency left open the possibility that the city's model would be adopted on a broader scale."


Texas: Woman fatally mauled by dogs: "Seventy-six-year-old Lillian Stiles died a horrific death, attacked by six Pit Bull Rottweilers. Lillian had been riding the lawnmower in her front yard when she was attacked. A passer-by saw it, tried to help, but was bitten instead, so he ran into the house looking for Stiles' husband, Jack. 'He asked me, he said, 'Do you have a gun?' And I said, 'Yes.' I came in the house and got my 22 rifle, and as I went outside, one of the dogs was charging toward me, face-to-face, and that's when I shot that dog,' Jack said. Jack scared off the other five dogs, but it was too late. The dogs had already killed his wife of 55 years."